Chronicles

1Ch 1:1 Adam, Sheth, Enosh,
1Ch 1:2 Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered,
1Ch 1:3 Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech,
1Ch 1:4 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth

How interesting is that? We’re still in our ‘read through the Bible in a year’ and do an overview of each book in Sunday School. Of course, I hadn’t read ahead, barely keeping up, and find that this week we’re doing Second Kings – and First and Second Chronicles.

They weren’t new to me – I do have some familiarity with all three books, but had looked upon the Chronicles as sort of a second story of the Kings. I had forgotten how genealogical the books were, even though their purpose is stated plainly:

So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies; and, behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, who were carried away to Babylon for their transgression. (1 Chronicles 9:1 KJV)

There were other books written, and known of for a long time, but were not considered scripture to include in the Bible:

Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer, (1 Chronicles 29:29 KJV)

There many things to ponder in these genealogical histories. Second Chronicles tells of the kings between David and the Babylonian captivity, ending with Jehoiacan:

Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 36:9-10 KJV)

That just piques my curiosity – was that eight year old so much as his father? And why was he made king instead of his older brother – mentioned in the last two verses:

Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD. (2 Chronicles 36:11-12 KJV)

Which is why Bible study remains important to me. There is always more to read, more to be discovered, more to be understood.